Fall River close to $3 million solar panel deal

A $3.1 million land sale for solar power and the purchase of discounted electricity which could save the city $400,000 a year or more shined brighter this week after local officials inked a pair of contingent agreements.

A $3.1 million land sale for solar power and the purchase of discounted electricity which could save the city $400,000 a year or more shined brighter this week after local officials inked a pair of contingent agreements.

The deal, in the works for several months after the Redevelopment Authority approved SunGen Mark Andover LLC to deliver the goods, involves:

— The RA selling 49 industrial acres at two sites for $3,123,750, or $73,500 an acre, the appraised price. The sites would contain 38,000 photovoltaic modules, or solar panels, each 3-by-5 feet in size.

A $325,000 deposit was delivered Wednesday, beginning SunGen’s one-year due diligence period to close the sale.

— An agreed-upon “power purchase agreement” with the city to buy an expected 8 megawatts of power at the two sites at 20 percent discounted rates. That’s about 3 cents on the going 14.2 cents per-kilowatt-hour rate.

Another 20 megawatts would be purchased from future SunGen solar farms in the city or elsewhere.

Mayor Will Flanagan said the deal unofficially puts the city at the top of the state’s green technology field, because no municipality has a solar panel development in place or under negotiation to produce electricity approaching 8 megawatts.

When combined with the recent construction of Lightolier’s 415-foot, 2 megawatt wind turbine in the Fall River Industrial Park, the city has a pair of potential first-place prizes — at this juncture.

“It’s a positive announcement for our city, and it puts Fall River as a leader for alternative energy,” Flanagan said during a interview Thursday that included Corporation Counsel Steven Torres and Kenneth Fiola Jr. of the Fall River Office of Economic Development.

Torres, who negotiated the deal, said he believes it was groundbreaking “for the size and this type of project.”

The total discount purchase of up to 28 megawatts equates to roughly the total consumption of municipal, school and related government buildings, Torres said.

This PPA would be consummated between the city and SunGen, a Newton-based company, creating a new limited liability company, Fall River Solar LLC.

Flanagan and Torres have signed the contract, but SunGen’s CEO has not. That’s expected within the next couple of weeks, Torres said.

“We’re just waiting to get a signed agreement back from them,” he said.

SunGen officials told the city it was “currently working on 10 sites, accounting for 40 megawatts of power” in Massachusetts.

The Newton-based company boasts a power team of influential and well-financed people, including Paul and Dan Fireman, who founded Reebok in Canton, real estate developer Robert Korff and Gov. Deval Patrick’s former chief of staff, Doug Rubin.

Gov. Patrick established a 10-year goal for the state to adopt 250 megawatts of solar power in a decade when he introduced that in 2007.

The city contracts include multiple contingency stipulations, Torres and Fiola said.

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William Kenney signed the land agreement Tuesday as chairman of the Redevelopment Authority that owns the two industrial tracts after a meeting with his board and Fiola last week in executive session.

The contents of that pact were not available Thursday.

“It’s not a done deal, but this is a major step forward,” Kenney said.

Torres pegged purchases of 8 megawatts under this negotiated host party discount as equaling “up to $400,000 a year” in savings that could be realized in the next three to five years.

Buying all of the city’s 28 megawatts of electricity at the discount could generate $1 million a year in savings, he estimated.

Fiola, discussing aspects of the land deal that have mostly been disclosed previously, said it involves two industrial sites:

— About 40 of the 49 acres, all adjacent to the landfill, would be usable, with shade, wetlands and buffering limiting the solar usage.

— 12½ acres would be at Commerce Park, opposite the Rhode Island Novelties site; including 11,000 of the solar panels.

— Another 37 acres would be within the new biopark, the SouthCoast Science and Technology Park at Fall River, the site located in the south section on the eastern side of the new roadway; including 27,000 solar panels.

Among the contingencies Torres said the city is working to secure are Department of Public Utility Regulations that limits discount purchases for municipal buildings to 10 megawatts. He said the inclusion of school, Housing Authority and other properties could allow the city’s full need for electricity.

The wholesale rates are not applicable to residential and business purchases of electricity, Torres said.